Manure-spreader.



I. DAIN.

MANURE SPREADER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 3, I911.

Patented May18, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET I.

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I. DAIN.

MANURE SPREADER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 3, 1911.

1,139,498. Patented May18,1915.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH DAIN, OF OTTUlVIWA, IOWA, ASSIGNOR TO DEERE & COMPANY, OF MOLINE, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

MANURE-SPREADER.

Application filed November 3, 1911.

T all Mimi/'1. it may concern 3e it known that I, Josnrn Dxnx, citizen of the United States, residing at Ottumwa, in the county of "apello and State of Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Manlire-Spreaders, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to improvements in manure distributors of the general class which includes those in which each is formed of a body portion serving to support and carry a load, and a distributing structure which receives the load gradually from the body part, shreds it. carries it upward, and throws it backward over the top to the ground.

Figure l is a side elevation of manure distributer embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section. Fig. 3 is a partial vertical transverse section taken on the vertical plane of the axis of the rear drive wheels. Fig. l is a side elevation from the right hand side of the parts at the rear end of the machine. Fig. 5 is a similar elevation of the said parts from the left hand side, some being broken away. Fig. (3 is an end elevation of the reel or distributor and showing some of the ad jacent parts. Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 illustrate some of the details.

The machine, as an entirety, may be regarded as made up of two structures, the body structure, indicated by A, and the rear-wheeland-beater structure, indicated as a whole by B. The first of these, the body structure A, can, so far as the present features of invention are concerned, be made in any of several ways. As shown, it comprises the side boards or walls 1, and the endless slatted bottom 2, together with a front wheel mounting at 3, and suitable frame parts as indicated at 4, 5. The rearwheel-andbeater structure B, as shown, comprises the rear ground wheels (1, the through axle 7, the heater 8, the driving gearing at 9 and 9', and the brackets at 10. These two structures, the body part, indicated as a whole by A. and the rear-wheeland-beater, indicated by B, are joined together, but in such way as to have the body part and the beater 8 supported upon the rear ground Wheels more or less independently of each other.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 18,1915.

Serial No. 658,377.

Structures of the subclass of mine include those in which the beater and the parts which are subjected to greatest strains and stresses while at work are supported directly (substantially) upon the ground wheels. In the earlier machines, the heaters and their driving devices were supported upon the wooden sides or the lighter and more delicate parts of the machine. The strong heavy ground wheels abutting upon the. ground. in a machine such as I show, can receive and take care of the severe thrusts and strains which result from the rapidly rotating heater or distributer engaging with and tearing off the matted and tangled masses which it shreds from the general mass of material, and throws upward and backward.

While the beater 8, by itself considered, can be of any of several forms, I prefer to construct it in the way shown. It has heads or spiders 11, one at each end, these being formed with sockets or recesses at 12 to re ceive the bars 13, and having projecting wings 11 between the bars. The bars are provided with shredding and throwing teeth 16, as shown. At the center, the heads or spiders 11 are formed with or secured to sleeves 17 for giving them a suitably long bearing upon their journal supports. A flanged tube 11 extends from end to end of the beater surrounding the axle 7 and bolted at its ends to the spiders 11. Such supports are provided by the brackets 10, each of which is formed with the body part 18, with the inwardly extending journal 19, and the depending arm 20. These brackets are supported on and carried by the ground wheels, preferably by means of the through axle or bar 7. The sill bars 5 of the body structure are, at their rear ends, securely fastened to the brackets 10, and from which they can be detached.

It will be seen that the two main elements or parts of the mechanism as a Whole, are, as above remarked, so mounted upon the rear ground wheels that the heater is entirely independent of the body, and the latter in turn is carried in such way as not to he called upon to support the heater or re ceive from it any of the strains or distorting forces exerted by it when at work.

The two sets of beater-driving gearin one indicated by 9, and the other by 9', eac 1 comprises the gear wheels 21, 22, 23 and 24.

The wheel 21 is an internal toothed gear, mounted upon the axis of the ground wheel, it being shown as mounted upon a sleeve projecting inwardly from the hub of the wheel. The wheels 22 and 523 are carried by a shaft 25, either formed integrally with them or formed separately and secured to them. This shaft part 25 is mounted in the aforesaid arm 20 carried by the bracket ill. The gear at it is concentric with the beater and is rigid therewith. The teeth may be formed by casting them integrally with the head or spider ll or with its sleeve 17, or it can be a separate wheel suitably secured to the beater.

The driving internal gear 21 meshes with the pinion 22 which, in turn, carries the wheel 23, the latter meshing with the beater gear 2- The part indicated by 7 may be either a through rotary axle, keyed or otherwise fastened to the ground wheels and rotated with them, in which case it will have its bearing in the brackets 10, or it may be non-rotary, as here shown having outward projecting spindle portions upon which the wheels 6 and the gears at 21 can be loosely mounted. In either case, backing ratchets or equivalent mechanism should be interposed at proper points, so that when the ground wheels are moved backward on the ground, the beater will be stationary, but when moving forward, will be automatically engaged with the beater to cause its rotation. I have shown such ratchets interposed between the ground wheels 6 and the internal gear 21. The dogs are indicated by 27. As shown each has a bar 27 pivoted at 29 to the end of the hub of the ground wheel, The end part 30 of each dog 27 is adapted to engage with the teeth of a ratchet wheel at 31. With each dog there is combined a spring which normally tends to force the part 30 outward to engage with the teeth 31. To draw the ends 30 of the dogs inward and prevent them from engaglng with the ratchet teeth, a wedge cone 32 is employed, it being mounted at the inner end of the round part or spindle of the axle. This wedge device has a combined rotary and axial movement. It is shown as having an inclined slot 33 in which there is seated a pin 3t extending laterally from the axle. The tapered end of the cone engages with the inner ends of the dogs and when it is moved axially outward it tends to separate these inner ends and throw their outer ends out of engagement with the ratchet teeth at 31. The wedge cone 32 is rocked or partially rotated by means of the crank arm 36, the link 37, the bell lever 38 and the link 39.

\Vhile the description in the latter statements has been directed to one of the sets of gearing parts, it is to be understood that there are two of these sets, approximately duplicates, one adjacent to the right hand ground wheel and the other adjacent to the left hand one. And the ratchet trippers on both sides of the machine are joined together by means of a rock shaft 58 which is mounted in the brackets 10 extending from one side of the machine to the other through the tube 11' and at its ends rigidly connected to the bell levers 38. When power is applied to these bell levers and the rock shaft hy the link 39, the dogs 27, on both sides of the machine, are permitted to engage with their ratchets at 31, and as the dogs are constantly rotating (one set with one of the ground wheels and the other set with the other) the ground wheels can both be simultaneously connected to the beater so that the latter shall have power imparted to it at both ends. This is in contradistinction to the machines in which the heaters are driven at one end only and are consequently subjected to a torsion and strain which are very objectionable and which are obviated by a mechanism having parts such as are herein typified.

As stated, it is to be understood that the details that have been lately referred to can be modified in many respects or others can be substituted without departing from the essential features of the invention. The same is true as concerns the means for causing the gradual movement backward of the load which is carried in the body structure A. The slatted belt or platform 2 is here shown as being endless, and mounted upon a drive shaft 40 and an idler shaft 41 carrying suitable sprocket wheels for engaging with the belt.

Power can be imparted to the drive shaft 40 in any well known or suitable way. For example, a sprocket wheel 42 can be mounted at the axis of the drive wheels adapted to actuate a chain 43 which in turn drives a shaft 4i through the sprocket wheel 45. The shaft 4% also carries the bevel 46, arranged to drive a sleeve or hollow shaft which carries at one end a bevel pinion i7 and at the other end a worm l8. The latter engages with the worm wheel 49 on the apron shaft 40, and through this train of parts power can be imparted to the apron at any desired speed. The apron can be stopped and started in any well known or desired way, as for instance, by one of the common devices for moving the worm 48 to and from its operative position relative to the worm wheel 49, namely, by the link and lever system at 50.- This is actuated by a rock shaft 51 extending from the left side to the right side of the machine and having a crank 52 which by a link :33 is connected to the bell. lever 54. This lever is also connected to the above described link 39 that causes the engagement of the distributer driving devices. The link rod 55 extends forward to points near the drivers seat and by a link system at 56 is connected to the hand lever 57.

With the trains of parts above described, it will be seen that the driver with a single movement of the lever 57 can at will cause the simultaneous engagement of both ground wheels with the reel and also the engagement of the driving parts with the feeding apron; and can simultaneously cause the disengagement of all these elements.

By mounting the heater in the way above described, so that it is carried directly by the ground wheels, I am permitted to make it of larger diameter than is common, without increasing the tendency to destructive action upon the machine, and give a greater peripheral speed to the operative parts of the beater. This in turn gives me a long curved line of action for the beater fingers over the quadrant extending from the radius indicated by the line a, Fig. 2, to the radius indicated by the line 2. Hence I elevate the slatted feeding carrier 2, relatively, bringing the plane of the top surface 26 of its operative part to, or in the neighborhood of, the horizontal plane of the axis of the beater. And as it is desirable to have the beater extend as far as possible above the axial line 7' of the ground wheels, I mount the beater so that its axis at 8' (Fig. 3) shall be considerably eccentric to the wheel axis. The operating part, the front part, of the beater is rising to engage with the material, and continues to engage with it, while said operating part is on the front side of the wheel axis, and the inactive, or returning, part of the beater is moving downward on the rear side of that axis. As the teeth or fingers do not, while they are traveling through the lower forward quadrant of their path, engage, to any material extent, with the matted and tangled mass at the rear end of the load moving slowly backward, they do not act against the advancing mass, but begin to engage with it and shred ofi' therefrom small masses while they are moving through the upper forward quadrant. The resistance to the rotation of the beater is therefore greatly reduced, and its power is availed of with greater economy than when the feeding apron 2 is arranged in a materially lower plane, as has been frequently done.

lVhat I claim is:

1. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination with the ground wheels, of the rotary beater or distributer mounted on an axis eccentric to the axis of the ground wheels and arranged to rotate around the last mentioned axis, the body for carrying the material to be distributed having the movable bottom arranged to deliver the material to the heater in horizontal planes near that of the axis of the beater, substantially as set forth.

2. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load-carrying body, the power transmitting ground wheels, the rotary distributer, the two independent sets of devices for rotating the distributer actuated respectively by the ground wheels and means extending through the distributerfor connecting and disconnecting it from the ground wheels.

3. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load-carrying body, the power transmitting ground wheels, the distributer, the set of distributer driving devices interposed between one of the ground wheels and the beater, the second set of distributer driving devices interposed between the other ground wheel and the distributer, the said two sets of driving devices being adapted to act separately or simultaneously in actuating the distributer, and means extending through the distributer for connecting and disconnecting it from the ground wheels.

4. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load-carrying body, the power transmitting ground wheels, the rotary distributer, the two sets of distributer driving devices interposed between the ground wheels respectively and the distributer, devices for disconnecting each set of the driving devices from the distributer, and an actuator common to both of the said disconnecting means extending longitudinally through the distributer.

5. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load-carrying body, the ground wheels, the rotary distributer, two sets of distributer driving devices interposed be-' tween the ground wheels respectively and the distributer, and means extending longitudinally through the distributer for connecting and disconnecting it from the ground wheels.

6. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load-carrying body, the ground wheels, the rotary distributer, two sets of distributer driving devices interposed between the ground wheels and the distributer, means passing longitudinally through the heater for connecting it to and disconnecting it from the ground wheels, and an axle pass ing through the beater and connected to both of the ground wheels.

7. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the loadcarrying body, the ground Wheels, the rotary distributer, power transmitting devices at each end of the beater and driven by the ground wheels respectively, a shaft passing through the heater and adapted to throw into and out of action the power transmitting devices, and an actuating device operable at will by the driver for operating said shaft.

8. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load-carrying body, the ground wheels, the distributor having a chamber which is open along the axis of the distributer and extends longitudinally therethrough, means for mounting the distributer, and an axle for the ground wheels extending through the distributer and situated eccentric to the axis thereof.

9. In a fertilizer distributer, the combina tion of the load-carrying body, the ground wheels, the rotary distributor having an open chamber extending longitudinally along its axis and having relatively large ournal openings, the supporting means for the distributer having corresponding enlarged journals, the axle for the wheels extending through the said distributer support and cocentric to its axis of the distributor.

10. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load carrying body, the ground wheels, the rotary distributer, two sets of driving devices interposed between the ground wheels and the distributor, the connecting tube joining the ends of the distributer, means passing through the said tube for connecting the distributer to and disconnecting it from the ground wheels, and the axle passing through the tube and carrying both of the ground wheels.

11. In a fertilizer distributor, the combination of the load carrying body, the ground wheels, the rotary distributer, each end of the distributer provided with an enlarged bearing, the tooth carrying bars joi ning the ends of the distributer, means supplemental to the tooth carrying bars for connecting the ends of the distributor rigidly together, and the ground wheel carrying axle passing through the distributer, the said distributor being rotatable independently of the axle.

12. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the load carrying body, the ground wheels, the rotary distributer, enlarged bearings in the ends of the distributer, tooth carrying bars mounted upon said distributer, means supplemental to the tooth carrying bars for connecting the ends of the distributer rigidly together, and the axle passing through the distributer said axle carrying the ground wheels and secured from rotation.

13. The combination of the load-carrying body, the ground wheels, the gearing concentric therewith and driven thereby, the beater rotating independently of the ground wheels around their axis and on an axis eccentric thereto, the gearing concentric with the beater and the eccentrically mounted gearing interposed between the two aforesaid gearings for transmitting power from one to the other.

14. The combination with the load-carrying body, the feed apron supported thereon, the rear ground wheels, the axle therefor, the beater rotating around the axle eccentrically, of the connecting and supporting devices, each having means for engaging with the axle, means for rigid attachment to the body, a bearing for gearing eccentric to the ground wheel axis, and a second eccentric bearing which surrounds said axis for carrying the beater.

15. The combination of the load-carrying body, the ground wheels. gearing concentric with the wheels, the axle, the beater rotating eccentrically around the axle and having end heads, toothed bars and a central tube extending from head to head, gearing concentric with the beater, intermediate gearing, and the supporting and connecting devices for the said parts, each having a bearing eccentric to the wheel axis for supporting said intermediate gearing, having means for attaching the body and also a relatively large bearing surrounding the axle eccentrically for supporting the beater.

16. In a fertilizer distributor, the combination of the ground wheels, the body supported at its rear on the said wheels, a rotary beater or distributor mounted on an axis eccentric to the axis of the ground wheels and supported on said wheels independently of the body, substantially as set forth.

17. In a fertilizer distributor, the combination of a body structure adapted to carry and deliver a load of material, ground wheels for the rear part of the body structure, a beater or distributer rotating around the axis of the ground wheels but on an axis which is eccentric to the aforesaid axis, means for transmitting power from the ground wheels to the beater, substantially as set forth.

18. In a fertilizer distributor, the combination of the ground wheels, a beater or distributer rotating on an axis eccentric to the axis of the ground wheels and having its front part arranged to move upward in front of the said wheel axis and downward in rear thereof, means for transmitting power from the ground wheels to said beater, a body for carrying material to be distributed, and means for feeding the material from said body to the beater, substantially as set forth.

19. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of the ground wheels, the rotary beater mounted on an axis eccentric to the axis of the ground wheels, beater supporting means carried directly by the round wheels, and a body for carrying an feeding the material supported upon the ground Wheels independently of beater, substan tially as set forth.

20. In a fertilizer distributen the combination of the ground wheels, the rotary beater on an axis eccentric to the axis of the ground Wheels, beater supporting means carried directly by the ground wheels, beater driving means interposed between the ground wheels and the beater and mounted on said beater supporting means, and a body for carrying and feeding the material supported on the ground Wheels independently of the beater.

21. In a fertilizer distributer, the combination of a pair of ground wheels adapted to transmit power, a relatively rapidly revolving beater or distributer rotating oppositely to the ground Wheels, supporting means for the beater carried directly by the ground Wheels independently of the body and supporting it eccentric-ally to the axis of the ground Wheels, a vehicle body supported on the ground Wheels independently of the heater and adapted to carry and to deliver a load of material to the beater, substantially as set forth.

29. In a fertilizer distributor, the combination of the ground wheels, the rotary heater or distributer mounted on an axis eeeentrio to the axis of the ground Wheels, the body for carrying the material to be distributed, and means for feeding the material to the beater at a horizontal plane above the bottom plane of the rotary parts of the beater, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

JOSEPH DAIN.

Witnesses JOSEPH BRbwNINo, W. G. DUFFIELD.

It is hereby certified that in Letters Patent No. 1,139,498, granted May 18, 1915,

upon the application of Joseph Dain, of Otturnwa, Iowa, for an improvement in Manure-Spreaders, an error appears in the printed specification requiring correction as follows: Page 4, line 22, for the word "its read the; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Ofiicc.

Signed and sealed this 27th day of July, A. D., 1915.

R. F. WHITEHEAD,

Acting Commissioner of Patents.

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